Description
Death is universal, but the human response to death varies widely. In Western society, death is usually medicalized and taboo, and kept apart from the world of the living, while in much of the rest of the world, and for much of human history, death has commonly been far more integrated into peoples’ daily existence, and human remains are as much a reminder of life, memento vitae, as of death, memento mori.
Through photos taken at more than 250 sites in thirty countries over a decade, Paul Koudounaris has captured death around the world. From Bolivia’s “festival of the little pug-nosed ones,” where skulls are festooned with flowers and given cigarettes to smoke and beanie hats to protect them from the weather to Indonesian families who dress mummies and include them in their household routines; from naturally preserved Buddhist monks and memorials to genocide in Rwanda and Cambodia to the dramatic climax of Europe’s great ossuaries, Memento Mori defies taboo to demonstrate how the dead continue to be present in the lives of people everywhere.
Reviews
A stunning portrait of how human remains are used in devotional and decorative ceremonies throughout the world.
— The Lineup
Memento Mori is led by the visuals: spellbinding images of decorated skulls, elaborate burials, and other death-related customs from around the world.
— Vice.com
10 Best New Photography Books of Spring 2015
— American Photo
Visually stunning …documents how different cultures around the world from Ethiopia to Rwanda to Nepal honor their dead.
— OnMilwaukee.com
Part history lesson, and part documentary…This is a fascinating book that points out the evolution of the perception of death and the dead in various cultures.
— Portland Book Review
Koudounaris is a skilled photographer, as the 500+ pictures in this oversized book attest, but even more so, he's a skilled and sensitive historian, who brings an anthropologist's empathy to the task of documenting and framing the varied practices depicted in the book…Oversized with an embossed cover and spine, Memento Mori sports outstanding color prints and beautiful design.
— Boing Boing
Contributors
Paul Koudounaris
Author
Paul Koudounaris received his doctorate from the art history department at UCLA. His previous books include The Empire of Death and Heavenly Bodies. He lives in Los Angeles.
